Dan, I predicted and celebrated the Duke loss as well. But be careful with the gloating. Florida has earned a lot of the same emnity in just one season that it took Duke years to build. When Florida loses, just be ready for the same kind of gloating!

Thank god the duke game was good because the other games sucked ass. It is funny that in one of my brackets I picked duke to win and in one I had them to lose. I figured they were ripe for an upset but they are duke after all they always find a way to win. When they showed laettner smirking at the end of the game I had to laugh. Lets hope tonights games are more exciting than the rest of todays ones.

The Duke hatred is ridiculous though. I don't understand, we don't cheat, we don't land the best recruiting class year after year, we play sound basketball, and we're academically legit.

I'm disappointed by the loss, but what can I do. VCU played for the miracle win, and they scored the miracle. I'm only upset that it feels like such a cheap loss. Stereotypical all or nothing underdog plan, full court press and jacking 3's. This isn't meant as an excuse or a disclaimer, there's just something cheap about these low seeds playing the 1st round like its the finals.

(My basic point is that VCU pulled out all the stops because winning in the 1st round makes their season a success. The fact that they're not playing to win the tournament sits sour with me. I know I'm not explaining myself well, and I'm ready for the flames)

I realise that by talking about my bracket, I'm probably inviting a hurling of virtual rocks in my direction, but my no knowledge-little interest approach has left me as one of seven entries at the top of the Daily Quickie Readers Group with 16/16! It can't last...

In my bracket for money, I was 15/16 yesterday. But I had Duke in the Final Four. I thought this was their "Colts" year, where they enter the tourney with absolutely no expectations and a slight chip on their shoulder and bounce back to make a good run. Plus, they had a bracket full of perennial chokers and late season underachievers. My only hope now is for Pitt or VCU to go on a run to the Final Four, keeping points from all of the UCLA and Kansas lovers.

EVen as an admitted Duke hater I'm finding all the Duke bashing headlines as overboard.

I cant remember a loss that has made so many sportswriters so giddy. And these same sportswriters are the same ones who slurp up the Duke kool-aid most seasons. Next thing even "Dukie V" will pile on them.

I'm not giving any sympathy, but I'm not going to pile on either because there but for the grace of God goes me.

I was rooting for VCU last night, big time. However, I do find all the pleasure taken from a Duke loss a little over the top. I'm glad their out, but only because it may allow some different teams to get the spotlight this year.

I am being a somewhat hyprocritical though, because if/when Florida gets bounced I will run, not walk, to my PC to gloat on this sight. As much as the constant media slurping up to Duke bothers me, it doesn't compare to how annoying that arrogant punk Joakim Noah and the rest of the Florida bandwagon jumpers have been (led of course by our boy Dan who is so lame he can't even stick with his own alma mater and has to gloat about his wife's team. Friggin' pathetic). Of course a team with "the greatest frontline in the last 25 years of college basketball" (A direct Shanoff quote and one so ridiculous it defies desription) can't possibly be defeated can they? God, I hope so. Because if they go back to back Dan will be more insufferable than he already is (and that is saying something).

Again I'm not sure why he and many other take so much pleasure in a Duke loss, although I am glad VCU won. Maybe I'll understand if Maryland or some other team takes out Crybaby Noah and the boys.

Let me just say that it's really not such a big deal that VCU won. Why? Because they didn't beat Duke. Sure, the name on the front of the jersey was Duke, but Duke makes those free throws late. Duke doesn't blow a 13 point lead.

It's the tournament. Teams should be going all out all the time. You just basically said that Duke didn't try hard enough. If that's the case, then they earned their first round exit.It's "cheap" for an underdog to play all out?? IT'S THE NCAA TOURNAMENT!! IT'S ONE AND DONE!! THIS ISN'T INTRAMURALS!!!!Tell Scheyer to go play intramurals, brother.

I didn't say that Duke wasn't trying, or that it was cheap to play all out... I'm saying the VCU strategy left me with a sour taste. Duke obviously lost (kudos to VCU), but I don't feel beaten. The strategy is a gamble used by mid-majors with nothing to lose, and this time it worked. I just wish we had bowed out to a team that outplayed us.

crumbbum, if you had paid attention to VCU at all this year, that's how they've always played. They're a pressing, guard-dominated team. Duke should have been prepared for it, they weren't and they lost. Sad to say, but Coach K got himself outcoached in this one.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.